Spend a minute in any Chinese metropolis and within a moment, you’ll feel the rush of air from a delivery bike speeding past. Like almost everything else in China, eating habits have transformed at a breakneck pace. A decade ago, morning trips to the vegetable market were tradition. Now, food of all sorts can be summoned to your home at the touch of a finger to your smartphone. Deliverymen rocket around, racking up hundreds of millions of trips per day across the country.

But this convenience doesn’t come without a cost. It’s estimated that more than 65 million takeaway containers are discarded every day in China. Generally made of thin, low-value plastic and covered in food residue, they never make it to recycling centres as the return is too small for the ‘informal’ collectors (often migrants to the cities) who comprise the country’s recycling system.